1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems, and more particularly, to peripheral controller devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems often time use disk drives as input/output (I/O) devices. One embodiment of a disk drive interface for universal serial bus (USB) is shown in FIG. 1. The interface may include a physical layer, a serial engine interface (SEI), an endpoint buffering unit, and an ATA interface controller. The physical layer may couple the disk drive interface to a host controller via the USB, while the ATA interface controller may couple the interface to a disk drive.
In some cases it may be desired to couple multiple disk drives to a computer system. In order to couple multiple disk drives, it may be necessary to provide additional interfaces. FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an interface configured for multiple disk drives. The interface includes a single USB hub, but includes separate physical layers, SEI's, endpoint buffering units, and ATA interface controllers for each disk drive. While this solution provides the necessary interface circuitry to support two disk drives, it may consume a significant amount of power. Furthermore, the extra circuitry may result in higher system manufacturing costs. In particular, the addition of the USB hub may result in much higher cost and power consumption.